Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 2/10/16

The USDA announced a new agreement with Israel to lift the ban on U.S. beef imports for the first time since 2003. Shipments will come from Nebraska’s WR Reserve plant in Hastings, Neb. – the first facility to provide American kosher beef shipments to Israel in more than a decade.

Since December 2003, Israel has banned beef imports from the United States due to a confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). With the agreement, it becomes one of the last countries to lift those restrictions.

U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who visited Israel last fall and on Tuesday called the agreement “historic,” said that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro asked her to work with the USDA to bring Nebraska beef to Israel – and that he hoped to be able to serve it at the embassy’s next Independence Day celebration.

In 2014 Israel imported beef products worth $405 million, according to the USDA. Ninety-five percent of those imports originated in Latin America, including Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay.

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